Apple Joins Nvidia, Tesla in Top Stock Options as iPhone Maker's Market Cap Nears $4T

On Wednesday, Daiwa raised its price target on the iPhone maker to $275 from $255, and maintained its outperform rating on the stock, noting that Apple Intelligence could be the top AI product for cellphones, according to a report on The Fly.

While Apple's record-breaking rally stalled Wednesday, Apple's market cap is still at $3.83 trillion, less than $200 billion away from the key milestone for the world's largest publicly traded company.

Call options that give the holders the right to buy Apple shares at $255 by Friday attracted the most volume, with 28,350 contracts changing hands as of 11:51 a.m. Although the price of the call is down 29% two days before expiration, that comes after 431% gain this month through yesterday.

In total, more than 305,800 Apple call and put options were traded so far across 19 expiration dates that stretch through Jan. 15, 2027. That landed the iphone maker in the fourth slot for the most active stock options.

Daiwa expects a multi-year AI upgrade cycle for iPhone users, likely starting in the fall of 2025 with the launch of iPhone 17. That's because about 80% to 90% of the 1.4 billion active iPhones will not be able to use Apple Intelligence, which is currently available only on 15 Pro and new 16 models.

Still, JPMorgan analysts including Samik Chatterjee, flagged the lower consumer awareness of Apple Intelligence that could hinder a massive upgrade cycle. They noted data from Wave7 Research that shows iPhone 16's market share among cellphone sales across the three carriers was at 66%, compared with 69% for iPhone 15 at this time last year.

"The survey highlights that the lower momentum, reflected in the lower market share y/y, is likely led by the (still) lower consumer awareness for Apple Intelligence, despite expectations for the feature set to be a key driver for an upgrade cycle," the analysts said in a note to clients.

Iphone sales account for more than half of Apple's revenue.

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